It was a mixed bag for the home crowd at the French Open on Wednesday, with Amelie Mauresmo winning her first match but men's hopeful Richard Gasquet eliminated in the second round.

Mauresmo, the fifth seed, defeated Laura Granville of the United States 6-0, 7-5. The 27-year-old has never made it past the quarter-finals at the French Open.

Amelie Mauresmo returns a backhander during her first round French Open match.
(Lionel Cironneau/Associated Press)

No. 2 Maria Sharapova of Russia received a test in her first match from Emilie Loit of France, but prevailed 6-3, 7-6.

Svetlana Kuznetsova, the third seed, breezed into the third round over fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-0, 6-3.

Venus Williams set a record and paved the way for a potential third-round match with No. 4 seed Jelena Jankovic by defeating fellow American Harkleroad 6-1, 7-6.

At 4-1 in the second set, Williams unleashed a 206 km/h serve, surpassing the fastest recorded serve in women's history. The serve beat the 204 km/h mark her sister Serena set last year.

"When I was younger, I was always trying to serve harder and harder, and now I'm not trying to serve hard. It comes hard," said Williams. "So it was unexpected."

Harkleroad, who managed to get a piece of the serve but no more, had defeated Quebec native Aleksandra Wozniak in the first round.

Russians Dinara Safin and Anna Chakvetadze and Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, all in the top 15, each won in straight sets. Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, the 14th seed, won 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 over Slovakia's Martina Sucha.

Shahar Peer of Israel, Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik, Mara Santangelo and Francesca Schiavone of Italy, Japan's Ai Sugiyama and Sybile Bammer of Austria also advanced.

Belgian Justine Henin, the top seed and winner of the event in three of the last four years, won 7-5, 6-1 over Austria's Tamira Paszek after enduring a 70-minute rain delay in the second set.

Gasquet, meanwhile, joined a growing list of prominent men to fall early on the clay at Roland Garros.

The No. 11 ranked player was beaten by Belgian Kristof Vliegen 7-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Sent home in straight sets

Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez took down No. 10 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4, 6-4.

Marat Safin, who entered the tournament as the No. 22 seed, was sent home in straight sets by Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

Carlos Moya, who won the men's singles title in 1998, escaped his first match. The Spaniard dominated in the final set to beat Italian Andreas Seppi 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.

Other seeded men to advance included Nikolay Davydenko (Russia), Novak Djokovic (Serbia), Tommy Robredo and David Ferrer (Spain) and Guillermo Canas (Argentina).